Tracking Love
by FromWithin
Summary: Claudia hacks into the Witness Protection Program to find Todd's new whereabouts but stumbles across someone on the same mission...John Conti, mob boss extraordinaire who wants him dead. With looming threats Claudia tries to save the day.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Warehouse 13 is not mine...I do not own it.

Her tired fingers glided across the keys of her laptop as the morning light broke through her window. Even hackery at its best took time but Artie's unrelenting schedule of inventory and artifact hunting had left none of that. He had finally allowed them a day off so instead of sleeping in Claudia had decided to stay up all night and bust down the cyber walls of the Witness Protection Program.

It had been months since she had last seen Todd, when she promised she would find him. She wouldn't admit it but when the program relocated him a piece of her left as well. Now she was moments away from cracking the system and getting his new whereabouts.

"We watch as the young female stalks her prey." Claudia looked up to see Pete and Myka standing in her doorway. Myka slapped him in the arm.

"Leave her alone, she's in love," she looked at Claudia with one of those sappy moment smiles and a gleam in her eyes.

"Ok, well a) no I'm not and b) I don't even know what you're talking about so if you two would like to move along you're throwing off the feng shui of my room."

"Young grasshopper you have much to learn. We're agents….of the secret service-warehouse variety. We have eyes and ears everywhere. You, my dear, are hacking into the Witness Protection Program's system to find the location of your long lost, love stricken, technie nerd boyfriend, Todd," said Pete as he walked over to her and placed his hand on top of her head. He looked down at her computer. "Oh Waterloo, Colorado, sounds like the most boring place on earth, oh wait that might actually be Univille."

"What?" Claudia looked down at her screen. Her hard work had finally paid off and now she was staring at Todd's newly revamped file. "Thanks Pete, you turned what was supposed to be the most climatic part of my day into mush."

"No no don't blame the mushy on me, blame Artie. We have what one would say in Claudia lingo 'a ping'." She looked up at him exasperated.

"You have got to be kidding me. Today's our day off why the hell can't we get a ping when I'm in the middle of inventory."

"Oh we have, we just never called…" she glared at Pete. "...you. I'm just kidding there kiddo," he said giving her a half smile.

"Sorry Claud but Artie says it's urgent he wants us dressed and downstairs sooner than as soon as possible," stated Myka with sympathy.

"Alright fine, tell crabzilla I'll be down in a few." Pete pinched her cheek like a little kid and bolted to the door before she even had a chance to smack him. Myka gave her a faint smile and followed after her partner.

Claudia sat there reading through the new file. _Waterloo, Colorado. Pete's right does sound dull as hell. They have him working as a librarian's assistant at the public library? You have got to be kidding, if Conti doesn't kill him the program will end up boring him to death. Stop it Claudia! Don't think about that, he's not going to get killed._ She printed up a few pages and made her way backwards through the system to cover her tracks when some movement in the network caught her eye.

"What do we have here, another hacker trying to break into Todd's file? This is so not good." For twenty minutes and with excruciating care Claudia managed to follow the path the other hacker had taken to get to the file with hopes of determining the computers owner.

"Claudia! Get down here!" yelled Artie from the staircase.

"Jeesh Artie don't you know it takes time to get this look just right? I'll be right down."

"I don't care what you're doing, get down here now!" Claudia rolled her eyes, she was almost there…

John Conti. The owner of the computer was Conti. The mob boss that Todd was testifying against and who wanted him dead now knew everything he wanted to know about Todd's new life. Including the exact address where he lived.

"This is worse than so not good, this is really so not good. I'm a jinx! This is my fault I had to think about Conti and now here he is." Her eyes stayed glued to the screen.

"Claudia!"

_Crap Artie, I forgot I gotta get down there_. She shut down her computer and ran down the stairs to a waiting Artie.

"Nice to join us your highness." Artie's words dripped with sarcasm.

"Come on old man don't have an aneurism, I was just getting dressed." Artie felt like something was wrong. The wit was there but the enthusiasm behind it was missing. The retort fell dead and the two made their way for the briefing in silence.

Claudia had no clue what to do. She didn't want to tell Artie, he always got mad when she hacked anything but this was the epitome of a life and death situation. Then again what would he even be able to do if she told him? The decision was made, she'd talk to Myka after the meeting, she always knew what to do.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm sorry this is a relatively short chapter but this idea has been swirling in my mind for awhile and I wanted to get something out there. Reviews are definitely welcomed and encouraged, what you liked or didn't like, what should I change or you think I should add. Everything is welcomed. Thank you everyone and I hope you enjoy it.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Still not owning Warehouse 13.

So apparently it was urgent. Somewhere in Utah Galileo's telescope would transport anyone who looked into it to the location it was pointing at. Not so horrible for the peeping Toms who were transported to the location of their viewing subject but a big problem for stargazers who use it, none of which have ever been seen again.

Artie put Pete and Myka on the mission. Of course Claudia had to stay and do more mind-numbing yet ironically interesting work around the warehouse while Artie researched the telescope.

Claudia caught up with Myka in her room as she was packing for the mission. She lightly knocked on her open door. Myka looked up and gave her a smile.

"Hey Claud, come in. What's up?" she asked placing a pile of shirts in her suitcase. Claudia sat down Indian style on her bed.

"Well you see, there's this kind of problem," Myka looked at her with worried eyes. "Ok so technically I guess it's not my problem. You know how I was hacking into Todd's file? Well I noticed someone else hacking in. I traced it back to its origins and found that the computer belongs to John Conti."

"Conti the mob boss? I heard he's in jail," said Myka zipping up her suitcase and sitting down next to Claudia.

"Yeah, because of Todd. Doesn't stop his goon brigade from using his computer now does it? This is the guy who Todd is testifying against, the reason he's in the Witness Protection Program. They're like kids in a candy store there, the information they have on Todd is practically never ending. There's no question in my mind I have to do something but I don't know what."

"Well there's not much that you can do but call the cops and warn them and they'll just have to relocate Todd again. Does Artie know about this?"

"Yeah, not so much. You know how he gets when I break laws, his face twists in a very weird way and gets beet red, I think he forgets to breathe and I always debate whether I should get 911 on the line or not," Myka laughed at her over exaggeration.

"He doesn't get that bad, besides you know he's just looking out for you. It won't hurt to keep him in the loop, if anything it will help."

"Easy for you to say, you know the loving side of Artie," Myka laughed again.

"If that's his loving side than I don't want to imagine what you get. Sorry I can't help you more but Pete and I really need to get going, Galileo you know." She gave Claudia a quick hug, stood up, grabbed her suitcase and headed for the door. "If you need anything give me a call or get me on the Farnsworth, you know I'm always here for you. We can talk when I get back too." Claudia smiled at her, already letting her mind get lost in her thoughts.

She listened to Pete and Myka say their goodbyes to Artie and Leena. The front door closed behind them followed by two car doors and the engine roaring to life. Claudia continued to sit on her bed until she couldn't hear the car driving away anymore.

"Claudia, are you ready to go to the warehouse?" yelled up Artie. She got up and walked to the top of the stairs and saw Artie still standing by the front door looking at it with a slight tinge of worry across his face. He always worried about everyone, especially when he sent them away for missions. He was afraid for the day they didn't come back.

"I think I'll just meet you there if that's cool."

"I suppose but don't be too long there's a lot to do." Claudia turned to walk away.

"Claudia," she turned back. "Is there something wrong?"

"No way Artemis, everything in the world is perfect." Artie gave her a questioning side look.

"Alright smartass, I'll leave you the keys to the El Camino then. Don't be long I want you there by ten at the latest." Artie left to grab his jacket and came back trying to find the last armhole. He looked up at her. "Ten o'clock, no later."

With that he was out the door, leaving Claudia and Leena alone in the B&B.

She went back to her room and pulled out her laptop, booting it back up. _Call the cops, why didn't I think about that? Ok so call the cops, and what do I say? 'Oh, hi Witness Protection Program I was just hacking your system when I noticed another hacker.' Ha yeah right, that one's sure to put me in the loony bin. How about 'yeah I was just sitting having my white mocha half cafe skinny latte no whip this morning at the coffee shop down the road when I overheard some guys talking about how their cracking the WPP system to access a file on a guy they want to blow the brains out of.' Ok so none of the above is going to get me very far. Maybe I should tell Artie…_

Before she had shut down she made sure to create a discreet path to get back to Conti's computer. No matter how experienced their hacker was there was no way they'd be able to find out what she was doing. She pulled up their webcam so that it was running and she could see everything it saw without alerting the owners of it being on.

The room she saw was really dark and dank. The walls were made of large gray bricks and the floor of cement. There were pipes running along the ceiling and some on the walls. In the corner sat what looked like a large furnace. The whole place seemed as if it could be the basement to a large building. A table was set up to the right of the screen; atop of it sat a scale and what looked like large white plastic wrapped bricks. _Great, we're in the drug dealing business this just adds to the fun._

She set the camera up to record to her computer, left it up on the screen, and let it run diverting her attention to the files within the computer. After several minutes she was able to copy the contents to her computer and began digging through the pages and pages of information.

She figured after a little perusing of their files she'd go to the warehouse and meet up with Artie and if need be, when she got back, stay up all night in their system again. She needed to find the dirt and call the cops on them.

She didn't expect to find what she did so soon, she thought she'd have to dig deep for this massive of a find.

Inside the files she found the schematics of a bomb. Not a little dinky bomb, a big honker of a bomb. One that is sure to make a very loud BOOM. The problem was she didn't know how far along they were with making it, maybe they already used it, what if they used it on Todd? Her question was answered when she heard some talking coming from the webcam.

She switched her screen over to the webcam. Two very muscular, very mob-like men came into view carrying boxes and bags. They set them down on the table, one of the men starting pulling out bottles of what definitely looked like chemicals.

"Boss want us to make this thing too?" said the man with the bottles in hand.

"Nah, we're just getting it. He hired someone smarter than you to do that. Last thing we need is you taking out the whole operation." _Uh yeah_, she thought to herself, _definitely a bomb, definitely not made and definitely being made_.

"I still don't understand why we need to get rid of this place, its perfect base of operations."

"Hey stupid, have you not noticed all the kids that play in the parking lot? Not to mention they've been getting around upstairs too. We can't risk having them around. I'll give it to Conti, picking this place in the middle of a residential area was smart, no one suspects a thing would go down. But he didn't think far enough to find this problem. After we set this one off…BOOM…no more kids, no more parents, in fact Boulder, Colorado will be missing three blocks."

_Crap crap crap crap crap. This is like a billion times worse than I can handle. Totally cop and Artie time._

Claudia made sure the webcam was still recording and packed up her computer. She pulled out her cell phone and called the operator who connected her to the Boulder Police Department.

"Boulder Police Department what's your emergency?" came a melancholic voice from the other end.

"Yes, hi, I have some information on a drug deal, can I talk to whoever's in charge?"

"I'll connect you to Officer Davis, he's in charge of the drug division, hold please." Claudia listened to the mundane stereotypical elevator music for nearly three minutes until someone finally answered.

"This is Officer Davis, how can I help you." His voice was deep and rough. There was scratchiness in his tone that hinted at years and years of smoking.

"Officer Davis, I was just walking around my campus at school and I overheard some kids talking to a couple of really big mob looking guys about cocaine or heroin or something and then one of the big guys said something about a bomb. I really thought you should know. You need to do something to stop this. I can describe the guys to you if it helps you."

"Did they say the location of this bomb?" _Crap, I didn't think about that. What am I going to say, some basement? Yeah right he'll think I'm crazy._

"No officer I didn't catch the location."

"Miss, I'm going to need your name and what school it is you go to."

"Jane Nielsen and I go to the University of Colorado at Boulder." _Sick lie Claud, way to stay on your toes_. Unbeknownst to her Officer Davis was cross referencing her fake name to the enrollment list to UCB at that exact moment.

"Funny you should mention that, there is no Jane Nielsen registered at UCB." _Crap who'd of thought he would check that? Shouldn't this be an anonymous tip line deal anyways? What's going on here?_ "Are you ready to tell me your real name and avoid further prosecution for lying to the police?"

"Alright my name's Claudia Donovan," she reluctantly gave in.

"Explain to me Claudia how you know about this so-called bomb that's here in Boulder and you're all the way in Univille, South Dakota. Sounds to me you're doing a whole bunch of lying and/or a whole bunch of illegal activity" _Are you serious? He's tracking this call too, this is getting a little too freaky._ _How did this whole thing turn on me anyways?_

Claudia didn't know what to do at that point so she hung up the phone. She sat on her bed, heart pounding and closed her eyes. Everything about that call was too weird, there was nothing right about. The only conclusion she could come to from that was the cops weren't going to be of any help.

She opened her eyes and looked at the clock. 9:53. She was definitely going to be late. She packed up her stuff and left the B&B, she had to tell Artie about all of this. There was bound to be something he could do to help.

* * *

At the Boulder Police Department:

Officer Davis ran Claudia's name through his computer and pulled up all of her records. He read about her parent's deaths, the disappearance of her brother, and her short stint in the psych ward. He knew where she lived and who she lived with, that she worked at an IRS warehouse. He knew when she was born, where she was born, what bones she had ever broken and every sickness she had been to the doctor for. Officer Davis pulled up every intricate detail on Claudia Donovan that he could find. Once he was satisfied he had everything he pulled out his cell phone and called speed dial 3.

"Zappa it's Davis. I just received a phone call over here tipping me off on our operations. Claudia Donovan's the name I'm going to send you all the information on her. She's lives in South Dakota, get some boys out there to take care of this now." Davis hung up the phone and went to work sending Zappa Claudia's detailed life history.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm thinking about turning the Galileo's telescope idea into a story so please review and let me know if I'm doing a good/bad job…it'll probably effect my decision to keep writing or not or at least to start another story. Thanks so much. Peace.

Oh btw…

OneDayRobotsWillCrycs- Cobra Starship fan? Awesome :) I love music and love to talk music, and your username totally caught my eye.


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